Effects of personal intelligence reading instruction on English reading ability and reading engagement of Thai university students

Abstract

This study explored the impact of Personal Intelligence Reading Instruction (PIRI) on Thai university students’ English reading ability and reading engagement. The participants were 39 first-year undergraduate students majoring in English enrolled in a Paragraph Reading Strategies course. PIRI was introduced to the students for 10 weeks. For the quantitative data, the English reading ability pre- and post-test scores were compared using a dependent samples t-test. Reading Engagement Index (REI) was employed in order to compare the level of reading engagement before and after the intervention. A reading engagement checklist was also used to observe four dimensions of students’ engagement, affective, behavioral, cognitive, and social engagement. Students’ Personal Intelligence (PI) profiles were collected to study the improvement of students’ personal intelligence skills. For the qualitative data, students’ worksheets and a classroom observation form were used to triangulate the data from the PI inventory. The findings showed that there were significant differences between the students’ English reading ability pre- test mean score (M = 6.97, S.D. = 2.59) and their post-test mean score (M = 8.31, S.D. = 2.31). The students’ self-reports of REI were associated with positive changes in behavioral, affective, cognitive and social engagement of the reading engagement checklist. Although the students had low level of intrinsic motivation, they were confident readers using more cognitive strategies and social engagement. These findings were correlated with students’ strategy use according to their Personal Intelligence profiles. The students showed a preference of intrapersonal intelligence such as goal setting and monitoring. Data obtained from classroom observations and student worksheets also was consistent to the students’ levels of personal intelligences. Based on the findings, reading improvement and reading engagement through PIRI instructional method should be encouraged, as it is a factor likely to foster students’ reading ability confidence in reading.